Mandela, Tony Blair and President Ramotar

Dec 11, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In a conversation with African rights activist Pender Guyan and media operative Charlie Griffith of Channel 9, I told both of them that the problem I have with attending the PPP-sponsored evening of eulogy at the Umana Yana for Nelson Mandela is that first, it should have been hosted by the Government of Guyana.
Secondly, Charlie told me that he wanted to go because he needed to see what shape it would take. I said that was easy to see even before you go. My column for yesterday was already on the editor’s desk before the PPP’s evening tribute. But so predictable was the PPP that every criticism I made in that article about the PPP’s rejection in emulating Mandela was potently accurate.
The evening was a PPP propaganda event, vulgar in all respects, because it was a divisive process shamelessly done in the name of one of the greatest human beings since civilization began more than five thousand years ago, Nelson Mandela.
Cheddi Jagan was compared to Mandela. This was the part that I told Mrs. Guyan and Charles Griffith that I was afraid of. Every opportunity would have been used to paint Jagan as great, with Mandela’s death being the occasion. Not even Jagan deserved such rude treatment.
What was not mentioned during the speeches was the name of Forbes Burnham. It was Mr. Burnham’s party with Desmond Hoyte as President who named a major gateway that links the Atlantic to south Georgetown and the East Bank after Nelson Mandela. The process of the insane denial of history continues by the PPP leadership of which the 50th anniversary of UG stands out.
Dr. Jagan founded the University of Guyana in October 1963. He lost power as Premier of British Guiana in December 1964. This meant that UG only existed for one year under Dr. Jagan. For the next twenty years, it was the Burnham Government that nurtured and expanded the university.
Moving the campus to Turkeyen in 1971, Mr. Burnham provided it with a sprawling estate that made it into a top class institution. Nowhere in the presentations for the 50th anniversary was this generosity of Burnham acknowledged. It is indecency of the mind and soul to deny Burnham his role in the birth of UG.
At the time of my Tuesday article, I didn’t know, President Ramotar was going to attend Mandela’s funeral service. But he left without inviting the Leader of the Opposition, no doubt a man who would have played no small part in his country’s quasi-military assistance to freedom fighters in Southern Africa, because he was a top ranking army officer in the GDF at the time under Mr. Burnham’s presidency.
Not only was Mandela’s legacy abused at the Umana Yana last Monday by the PPP. But it was even more lacerated by the vulgar denial of at least a small indication of statesmanship by the PPP leadership, through an invitation to Mr. Granger to accompany President Ramotar to the memorial service.
The Trinidadian PM did exactly that. The Trinidadian initiative has exposed the deadly nature of the political culture in this country that is going to drag us into oblivion sooner than later.
Early in the morning, while driving my wife to work, we both noticed how the streets were deserted. Yes, in rush hour, the streets were unfilled. People stayed home to watch a fantastic gathering of the world’s leading decision-makers attending Mandela’s funeral ceremony.
Back at home, my daughter and I watched the event, and there was the BBC interviewing former British PM, Tony Blair. He was extolling the greatness of Mandela.
I turned to my daughter and said to her that Blair could have been in Mandela’s shoes. He ruled a powerful country for ten years, half of the time Mandela served as President of his. Yet Blair demitted office ignominiously. He was actually compelled by his party, like Margaret Thatcher, to step down.
The history books will canonize Mandela while they will be cruel to Tony Blair. Blair chose not to be a Mandela. Even if he couldn’t, at least he could have tried.
I told my daughter why Blair did not want to emulate this great man that he, Blair so admired is something we, humans, will never understand. It is the same with the Guyanese President. Here was a glorious opportunity for Ramotar to begin the healing process in Guyana. The Mandela funeral was a unique moment for Ramotar to begin his legacy. It doesn’t look like he wants one.
Will Donald Ramotar end up like Tony Blair in a book that has Mandela on the cover and no mention of Blair and Ramotar?

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